Monday, 24 May 2021
Crossing Boundaries.
Ong Hwee Soo

John 4:1-45 (Please read)

The above passage narrates a beautiful story of Jesus crossing various boundaries to reach out to an individual and thereby a community.

Firstly, Jesus crossed a geographical boundary as we read in v 4, “And he had to pass through Samaria.” The verb ‘had to’ denotes necessity. Traditionally, the Jews avoided Samaria by traversing the Jordan and travelling on the east side. The verse indicates Jesus’ sense of mission, hence, He intended to save time and needless steps by taking the shorter route from Jerusalem to Galilee.

Next, Jesus broke a serious social barrier by initiating a conversation with the Samaritan women. To a Jew, that would be double prejudice on the grounds of race and gender.

Historically, after the nation of Israel (Northern Kingdom) with its capital at Samaria was invaded by the Assyrians, multitudes of Jews were deported to Assyria while the foreigners were brought to settle in Israel to administer peace (2 Kings 17:24). The intermarriages that occurred between those aliens and the remaining Jews resulted in a mixed race, impure in the eyes of the Jews who lived in Judah (Southern Kingdom). The pure Jews hated the mixed race called Samaritans because they perceived that their fellow Jews who intermarried had betrayed their people and nation.

For a Jewish man to speak with a woman in public, let alone request a drink from her (v 7) was a clear breach of social norm and a definite departure from social animosity that prevailed between the two communities. Further, a Jew would become ceremonially unclean if he used a drinking vessel handled by a Samaritan, as the Jews considered all Samaritans unclean (v9). Thus, Jesus crossed a rigid religious regulation in His request for a drink from the Samaritan woman.

Women generally came in groups to collect water, either earlier or later in the day to avoid the midday sun. If the Samaritan woman came alone at noon (v 6), this may imply that her public shame prompted her to isolate herself from the other socially acceptable women. A rabbi and religious leader would not hold conversation with a woman of ill-repute (v 18).

However, Jesus did tell her “Go, call your husband” (v16) which was culturally correct as in that society, no rabbi would speak with a woman without her husband present. But Jesus has another purpose in mind as He intended to get beyond mere conversation (v10-15) to touch her deepest emotional need. In so doing Jesus broke through her psychological perimeter to lead her to face her deepest needs.

While her reply, “I have no husband” (v 17) was technically correct, the Samaritan woman’s curt answer was meant to close the subject. However, Jesus with gentleness and compassion, revealed both her sin and His omniscient knowledge of her life. The Jews held that a woman might be allowed to divorce twice or thrice at the most. If the Samaritans upheld the same standard, the woman’s five divorces (v18) showed she was exceedingly immoral. To top it all, she had apparently not married her present partner. The woman was compelled to face the reality of her need for redemption.

However, she tried to divert the conversation from her own moral failure to a fundamental religious issue. Traditionally, because of the Jewish antagonism toward them, the Samaritans had set up an alternative worship centre on Mount Gerizim (v 26) parallel to the Temple at Jerusalem. The proper place of worship had long been a source of contention between the Jews and the Samaritans. The woman brought up a popular theological issue about the correct place of worship as a smoke screen to keep Jesus from touching her deep-seated emotional, psychological. moral and spiritual needs.

However, Jesus directed the conversation to a more important point: the location of worship is not as important as the attitude of worship (v 21-24), thus, once again broke the religious bound. It is note-worthy that whereas Jesus at the start of the passage, avoided a religious confrontation with the Pharisees by leaving Judea and heading for Galilee (v 1-3), here, He was willing to engage in a theological discourse with the Samaritan woman.

This lovely story ends with the Samaritan recognising Jesus as the ‘living water’ (v 10-15), as the Messiah (v 25) and the Christ (v 29). Abandoning her previous social shame and ostracism, her spontaneous testimony led her community to find the “Saviour of the world” (v 30, 39-42).It is indeed remarkable that Jesus traversed geographical borders, crossed racial and gender divides, contravened social conventions, demolished religious demarcations, broke through psychological barriers to reach out to the deepest needs of an individual whose redemption and transformation brought a community to receive salvation.

What boundaries do we need to cross to reach out to diaspora groups in our ‘Samaritan’ (neighbouring) areas? What are the ways we can bring the ‘living water’ to the thirsty and the ‘bread of life’ to the hungry?

Let’s Live the Life, Breaking Barriers.

PRAYER:

Dear Jesus, You have shown us how You break barriers to make people whole. Empower us Lord, to push the frontiers, to reach out to those in the fringes. Enable us, to shine through the schisms that separate, so that people in the periphery can see your Light. Amen.

每日灵粮
星期一，2021年5月24日
标题：跨越界限
讲员：翁辉赐弟兄
翻译：陈劲年姐妹

【约翰福音4:1-45】～ 请阅读

以上段落讲述了耶稣跨越不同的界限，接触一个人，进而接触一个群体的美丽故事。

首先，正如我们在第4节所读到的，耶稣越过了一个地理分界线，祂 “必须经过撒玛利亚。” 动词 “必须” 表示必要性。传统上，犹太人穿越约旦并向东走以避开撒玛利亚。这节经文表明了耶稣的使命感，因此，祂打算通过从耶路撒冷到加利利的捷径来节省时间和不必要的步履。

接下来，耶稣打破了一个严重的社会障碍，开启了与撒玛利亚妇人的一段对话。对一个犹太人来说，这是基于种族和性别的双重偏见。

从历史上看，以撒玛利亚为首都的以色列国（北部王国）被亚述人入侵后，大批犹太人被驱逐到亚述，而异族人则被带到以色列定居以维持治安(列王纪下17:24)。这些异族人和留下的犹太人之间的通婚导致了一个混血种族，在居住在犹大(南部王国)的犹太人眼中是不纯净的。纯犹太人憎恨被称为撒马利亚人的混血种族，因为他们认为通婚的犹太人同胞背叛了他们的民族和国家。

一个犹太男人在公共场合与一名妇人说话，更别论向她要水喝 (第7节)，显然违反了社会规范，也明显地背离了两个群体之间普遍存在的社会仇恨。此外，若犹太人使用撒玛利亚人所用过的器具，在仪式上就变得不洁净了，因为犹太人都视所有的撒玛利亚人为不洁的(第9节)。故此，耶稣向撒玛利亚妇人要水喝，是越过了一项严格的宗教规定。

妇女通常成群结队地来取水，要么是在一天的早些时候，要么是在晚些时候，以躲避正午的阳光。如果这撒玛利亚妇人在中午独自前来(第6节)，这可能意味着她在公众面前的羞耻感促使她把自己与其他社会上被接受的妇女隔离开来。拉比和宗教领袖不会与一个声名狼藉的妇人谈话(第18节)。

然而，耶稣却告诉她 “去，叫你的丈夫来”(第16节)，这在文化上是正确的，因为在那个社会，没有丈夫在场，拉比不会与一个妇人说话。但是耶稣心里有另一个目的，祂有意超越纯粹的对话(第10-15节)，祂要触及她最深处的情感需求。耶稣这样做突破了她的心理界限，引导她面对她最深切的需要。

虽然她的回答 “我没有丈夫”(第17节)在技术上是对的，但撒玛利亚妇人的简短回答是为了要结束这个话题。然而，耶稣怀着温柔和怜悯的心，揭露了她的罪和揭示祂对她生活无所不知的认识。犹太人认为，一个妇人可以离婚两次，最多三次。如果撒玛利亚人也秉持同样的标准，这个妇人的五次离婚(第18节)表明她是非常不道德的。更甚的，她显然没有嫁给她现任的伴侣。这妇人被迫面对她需要救赎的现实。

但是，她试图将话题从她自己的道德失败转移到一个基本的宗教问题上。传统上，由于犹太人对他们的敌视，撒玛利亚人在与耶路撒冷圣殿平行的基利心山(第26节)上建了另一个敬拜中心。长期以来，正确的敬拜地点一直是犹太人和撒马利亚人之间争论的根源。这位妇人提出了一个关于正确敬拜地点的热门神学问题作为烟幕，以防止耶稣触及她根深蒂固的情感、心理、道德和心灵需要。

不过，耶稣把谈话引向一个更重要的论点：敬拜的地点不如敬拜的态度重要(第21-24节)，故而再次打破了宗教的界限。值得注意的是，尽管耶稣在这段经文的开头，通过离开犹太前往加利利(第1-3节)以避免与法利赛人的宗教对抗，但在这里，祂愿意与这位撒玛利亚妇人进行神学对话。

这个温馨的故事以这位撒玛利亚人认出耶稣是 “活水”(第10-15节)、是弥赛亚(第25节)以及是基督(第29节)结束。她摒弃之前的社会羞耻和排斥，她主动的见证带领了她的社群找到了 “世人的救主”(第30节，39-42节)。值得注意的是，耶稣跨越了地理边界，跨越了种族和性别的鸿沟，违反了社会惯例，拆除了宗教界线，突破了心理障碍，接触到一个人最深切的需要，以致她的救赎和转变带来了一个社群的得赎。

我们需要跨越哪些界限才能接触到我们 “撒玛利亚人”(邻近)地区的散居群体？我们有什么方法可以把 “活水” 带给口渴的人，把 “生命粮” 带给饥饿的人？

让我们活出生命，突破障碍。

祈祷 ：
亲爱的耶稣，祢已经向我们展示了祢是如何打破障碍以使人完整。主啊，求赋予我们力量，去推动边界，去接触那些处于边缘的人；使我们通过教会的分立发光照耀，以便周围的人可以看到祢的光。阿们。